


Brown Paper Packages

by tigerlady (shetiger)



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Christmas, F/M, First Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-08
Updated: 2010-01-08
Packaged: 2017-10-14 14:11:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/150034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shetiger/pseuds/tigerlady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John's never tempted for himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brown Paper Packages

"What have you got there?" John peered over Teyla's shoulder, smiling as he saw the glossy pages of a holiday catalog. She had stopped on a page filled with various cheeses and sausages, each displayed with bright boxes and shiny bows.

"Elizabeth thought I might like to shop for something from Earth. She said it is traditional to buy gifts this way, but that I might find something for myself." Teyla looked up at him, her eyebrow raised.

John pulled out the chair next to her. "You're thinking 'Earth people are crazy' again, aren't you?"

"When do I not think that?" Teyla smiled at him, then looked back down at the catalog. She turned the page, revealing an assortment of chocolates this time. Several big circles were drawn around three of the packages, stars inked next to the labels to emphasize the point.

"I see Rodney shared his opinions."

"He told me he wanted to give his admirers plenty of options," she said, thumbing back several pages and pointing out the choices marked in the smoked meat section. "Just in case."

"Thoughtful of him." John smiled into his coffee. He didn't say anything else for a while, content to watch her look through the catalog. She studied each page carefully, taking in the pictures and then reading the descriptions next to them, index finger assisting her eyes. She never seemed to linger over any particular item, and John wondered if maybe she was taking the whole thing a little too seriously.

"You know," he said, setting his empty mug off to the side, "you don't have to get anything if you don't want to. It's a bunch of crap. For the most part, anyway."

Teyla looked up at him, her lips pursed. "So I shouldn't get anything, then?"

He shook his head. "I didn't say that. I'm just saying you shouldn't feel like, I don't know, like it's part of an Earth rite of passage or something." John tapped the page. "And hey. If you want more chocolate, I'll have Lorne doctor the requisition forms. You like dark chocolate Kit Kats best, right?"

Teyla nodded, but she didn't say anything. John got the feeling he'd managed to put his foot in his mouth yet again.

"Or you can order chocolate from this place, too. I won't think any less of you."

Teyla laughed, a wide smile breaking out across her face. "Thank you, John. I will rest more easily at night, knowing your respect is undiminished."

"Hey, now. I was only trying to be supportive."

Teyla covered his hand with her own, thumb sweeping across his skin before she pulled away again. John tried to ignore the spark that shot up his arm from that simple touch.

"I know," she said, still smiling. "I shouldn't tease."

"Nah," he said. "Then I'd have to stop teasing you, and what fun would that be?"

Teyla raised her eyebrow again. John smiled back as innocently as he could.

She shook her head and turned back to the catalogs. "You do not think much of this form of shopping, then?"

John shrugged and tugged a few of the catalogs out of the pile, a Hickory Farms one on top. "It's all a matter of what you're looking for, I guess." He smiled. "These used to be a life-saver about this time of year. We'd get a ton of these on base, just piling up in the common rooms."

"So you used them to purchase things when you could not do so any other way?"

"Well, I didn't. A lot of the guys ordered stuff for their families." John chuckled as he stopped on a page full of music boxes. "I liked to look, though. When you've been stationed in the middle of nowhere for months on end, you start imagining you want the strangest things. But I was never really tempted to buy anything."

Teyla flipped open another book, this one full of puzzles. She nudged his shoulder. "Never?"

"Those look fun," he agreed. Teyla'd obviously been paying attention to his Sudoku addiction. "I don't think we ever got the ones full of cool stuff like that."

"It is all amazing to me," she confessed quietly. "I have been to many worlds, seen many wonders, but I know of no people who trade this way. For such a variety of goods."

"I imagine it'd be kind of hard to guarantee a shipment when the Wraith might wipe you out at any second," he said wryly.

Teyla nodded. "That is true." She leaned closer to him, pressing into his side as she touched the pages he'd been looking at. John was mesmerized as she rubbed the pad of her finger across a porcelain horse and rider. "Ronon said that these reminded him of art shops on Sateda."

"Huh." The image of Ronon and fancy shops with music boxes just didn't go together. Just another thing to bring home how much Ronon had lost. "Did he want to order something?"

Teyla shook her head. "He said that it is all a bunch of crap, too."

John laughed. _That_ sounded like Ronon. "So what about you? Have you seen anything you like?"

She shrugged noncommittally. The muscles in her shoulder flexed against his arm, and John realized they were still pressed together in a way that felt more than friendly. He casually leaned away, reminding himself that he didn't do that. Not with Teyla.

"Well," he said, and cleared his throat. "I'll let you get back to looking. We still on later?"

"At twenty-two hundred, as we arranged." She looked up at him, cocking her eyebrow. "Have you been practicing?"

"Hey, I always practice!"

"Of course." Teyla's lips twitched to the side, but she kept the smile hidden. She couldn't keep it out of her voice, however. "I will be sure to push you even harder, so you can show off how much you have worked."

"Great," John said, and he meant it. Even though he knew it would mean extra aches later, he loved it when Teyla pushed him to his limits and beyond. Working with her was almost as exhilarating as flying. "Have fun shopping."

"Thank you," she said, sounding sincere. Her smile softened into sweetness, and John grabbed his coffee cup and got out of there.

It was only after he set his dirty cup in the dish return that he realized he still had one of her catalogs in hand. He started to walk back to Teyla to return it, but a picture on the back caught his eye.

No, John was never tempted to buy anything for himself, but sometimes, when he saw something that was perfect for somebody else, he couldn't resist.

*****

"John!"

John turned at Teyla's voice, pivoting neatly on his front foot so he could look back down the corridor. She quickened her step and reached his side before he could ask what was up.

"Hey, there," he greeted instead.

"Hello." She flashed him a brilliant smile. "Do you have a few minutes? I have something I would like to show you."

"Sure." He fell into step beside her, surprised when she led him straight to her own quarters. His surprise cleared up as soon as he spotted the spray of flowers sitting on her desk. "Pretty," he said, nodding at the yellow blooms.

"Yes, they are." She crossed her arms across her chest. "Elizabeth told me they were a gift for me from a friend, but she wouldn't say who."

John rubbed his chin, trying to look thoughtful. "Is that so?"

"I seem to remember you telling me a month ago that those catalogs were full of nothing but crap."

He grinned, all but bouncing on his toes as the rush of a plan well accomplished hit him. "So you like them?"

Teyla laughed. "They are beautiful. And as I understand it, I'm to receive more?"

John nodded. "A different pot of bulbs per month. I thought maybe you'd like to see something beautiful from Earth for a change." He paused, hating to bring it up, but knowing he had to. "I kind of had to sign my soul over to the SGC to guarantee them that we wouldn't spread the bulbs all over Pegasus. So they're just for you, okay?"

"I understand." She wrapped her fingers around his wrist and squeezed lightly. "Thank you, John. I cannot imagine a more perfect gift."

"It was nothing," he said, grinning at her happiness. She grinned back at him, and they were caught in a cycle of shared satisfaction. Then her grin faded, a pensive look entering her eyes.

"What?" he asked.

"Elizabeth also said that the person who gave them might have wished to remain anonymous, because in your culture, giving a woman flowers signifies romantic intentions."

"Ah." John rubbed at the back of his neck, feeling caught out in a way he hadn't since he was a teen. "Friends give flowers, too."

She stepped closer to him, so close that she had to tip her head back to look up into his eyes. John could smell her, all feminine and foreign and Teyla, with the spring scent of daffodils surrounding her. He wanted to pull her closer, breathe her in, but he held himself back. This was one temptation he never gave into.

Then she laid her hand against the base of his throat. He could feel his own pulse thud against her skin.

"However you intended them," she said quietly, "that is how I accept them."

John covered her hand with his own, hoping he'd understood her correctly. "So am I Earth-crazy, or did you mean--" he started, but Teyla shushed him with a finger to his lips.

"I think we can figure it out together," she said, and drew him down for a kiss.

END


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